Randy Weaver
Randall Claude "Randy" Weaver (3 January 1948-) was an American white supremacist whose refusal to show up to a court hearing led to the Ruby Ridge standoff, in which his wife, son, and a federal agent were killed. He only served 18 months in prison for failure to appear in court. Biography Randall Claude Weaver was born in Villisca, Iowa in 1948, to a devout Protestant family of farmers, and he dropped out of community college at the age of 20 to serve in the US Army. He was honorably discharged in October 1971 and married Victoria Jordison, and Weaver worked at a John Deere factory to provide for his family. They became fundamentalist Christians who believed that an apocalypse was coming, and, during the Iowa farming crisis of the 1980s, they decided to move to a remote cabin near Naples, Idaho (30 miles from the Canadian border), away from civilization. They both attended Aryan Nations gatherings, initially for social events, and later for indoctrination by Richard Butler. He did not agree with many of the group's views and did not formally join, but he found friends there, and was hired by them to saw the barrels off shotguns, committing a federal crime. He committed the act after talking to an ATF informant, and the ATF sought for him to become an informant. He refused, and he was hauled off to the Kootenai County jail in January 1991, being forced to post his home as bail; if he would lose the trial, he would lose the home. This galvanized the family's hatred of the government, and, when Weaver refused to show up to court, the US Marshals service was sent to bring him to court and answer charges. Ruby Ridge The Marshals installed motion-activated cameras near the Weaver cabin, and the story of a survivalist, white supremacist family vowing to die rather than leave their home became widespread in the media. On 3 May 1992, he gave an interview and refused to surrender, so the Marshals brought in a special surveillance team. On 21 August 1992, 6 federal agents approached the mountain in two teams, planning to check the family's status. However, the dog barked, alerting Weaver to the agents. The federal agents killed the dog to silence it, and it was said that a furious Sam Weaver angrily shouted at the agents, "You killed my dog, you son of a b----"; the agents said that family friend Kevin Harris had been the one to initiate the fight. Gunfire erupted, and federal agent Billy Degan was killed before the federal agents fired back and killed Sam. Agent Dave Hunt called the Marshals Office and the state police for help, and they surrounded the cabin for ten days. The agents were given permission to shoot at any armed men they saw; the next day, an FBI sniper wounded Randy Weaver with a shot, and another sniper's bullet killed Vicki as she ushered the occupants of the house into the cabin. The agents did not know that Vicki was dead, and called out for Vicki to let the children come to the agents for pancakes. Richard Butler, neo-Nazis, skinheads, and other neo-fascists joined demonstrators in calling the policemen "a shame to the white race", "baby-killers", and other insults, and the skinheads even attempted to smuggle in firearms. Eventually, through the efforts of negotiator Bo Gritz, the last of the survivalists surrendered, with Weaver and his children surrendering on 31 August, a day after Harris. He was sentenced to just 18 months in prison for failing to show up to court, but was acquitted of killing a federal agent and won $3.1 million in damages in 1995 for Vicki and Sam's deaths. In 2007, he supported New Hampshire tax protesters and announced that he was an atheist. Category:1948 births Category:Americans Category:English-Americans Category:Protestants Category:Converts to atheism from Protestantism Category:Atheists Category:Aryan Nations Category:American fascists Category:Fascists Category:Republican Party members Category:Iowa Republicans Category:Idaho Republicans Category:People from Iowa Category:People from Idaho Category:Mormons Category:Converts to Mormonism from Protestantism Category:Converts to Protestantism from Mormonism Category:US Army Category:Green Berets